How I Made MY 8y/o Computer Super Fast Again

[FDNY]

This is probably obvious but I just had to share it.  In February 2013 I bought a new Dell Optiplex 9010 because my few years old at the time Dell could not handle ATX 2012 as we all remember that debacle.  The 9010 had 2012-2019 ATX on it, and performed well, but slowed the last year.  While doing a 2019 amended return I got a black screen of death.  Was able to resurrect it but it kept happening.  So my next thought (before reaching out to everyone here) was to get rid of ATX 2012-2016, services and all, since it's not really needed any more.  Now the computer works great, ATX loads in seconds instead of minutes.

This year I purchased an Optiplex 7070 Micro which is about the size of what my wife calls "a Billy Sandwich."  At least something good happened to me this tax season.  

[ILLMAS]

I am surprised they can handle any programs at all, aren't they workstations?

[Abby Normal]

You probably could have just turned off the auto-started ATX server services, because just having programs on your drive won't normally cause problems, unless your problem is drive space. But, computers are mysterious sometimes.

[Yardley CPA]

1 hour ago, Abby Normal said:

You probably could have just turned off the auto-started ATX server services, because just having programs on your drive won't normally cause problems, unless your problem is drive space. But, computers are mysterious sometimes.

Abby...how do you turn off the auto-start again?

[FDNY]

2 hours ago, Abby Normal said:

You probably could have just turned off the auto-started ATX server services, because just having programs on your drive won't normally cause problems, unless your problem is drive space. But, computers are mysterious sometimes.

I never thought of that.  I should have come here first.  I do have all those past years on a newer laptop that works fine but will stop the services, after you tell Yardley how to do it.

[FDNY]

3 hours ago, ILLMAS said:

I am surprised they can handle any programs at all, aren't they workstations?

They are stand alones , great machines.

[Abby Normal]

4 hours ago, Yardley CPA said:

Abby...how do you turn off the auto-start again?

There are several place in Windows that you can see some of the auto start programs (not services). One of them is the Task Manager Startup tab, but you won't ATX Services there, but you may find some other things to disable. And there are plenty of 3rd party apps for autostart management. The best one I've found is called Autoruns which you can find on Microsoft's site here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/autoruns. In Autoruns you can find the services under Sfs.server..., but I don't recommend do this.

For services like the ATX servers, you'll want to go to Windows Services. Probably the easiest way to get there is to start with Task Manager, click on the Services tab then click on the Open Services link at the bottom. Once in the Services manager, sort by name, if not already sorted. The services all start with ATX followed the year then 'Service' (e.g., ATX 2013 Service) Right click each one and choose properties. Change Automatic to Manual so you can start them if you ever need to. Just starting ATX should start the service, or you can run the Admin Tool for that year. or manually start them in Services if all else fails.

While you're in services, right click again on each one you don't want running and choose Stop. Next time you reboot your computer, bring up task manager and make sure the services aren't running.

Easy peasy.

[Abby Normal]

3 hours ago, FDNY said:

They are stand alones , great machines.

The biggest problem with buying off the shelf is all the crapware that comes preinstalled, and is set to run automatically at startup. Back when new computers came with a Windows disc, I would reformat the hard drive and reinstall just windows to make sure all that crap was gone. But you can use a good uninstaller to get rid of all traces of those Dell or HP (or whatever brand) programs they install. Dell is the most famous for crapware that impacts performance, security and causes other problems.

[FDNY]

11 hours ago, Abby Normal said:

The biggest problem with buying off the shelf is all the crapware that comes preinstalled, and is set to run automatically at startup. Back when new computers came with a Windows disc, I would reformat the hard drive and reinstall just windows to make sure all that crap was gone. But you can use a good uninstaller to get rid of all traces of those Dell or HP (or whatever brand) programs they install. Dell is the most famous for crapware that impacts performance, security and causes other problems.

That is so true.  Years ago a friend of mine told me about that and he said to use a Bloatware remover that I've used more than once.  I recently used it after installing a new HP printer.   I did remove a few things via control panel but I always research each item before I hit uninstall.